Andropov, Suslov in His Corner : Powerful Patrons Aided New Leader’s Swift Rise

New Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev rose rapidly to the top at an unusually early age with the help of powerful patrons.

He became a member of the ruling Politburo less than five years ago, at the age of 49, and then moved into the No. 2 position when Konstantin U. Chernenko took the top post in February, 1984.

The succession of Gorbachev symbolizes a dramatic transfer of power from an older generation of Soviet leaders, mostly men in their 70s.

In contrast to his often-dour Politburo colleagues, he is described as personable, even witty. His wife, Raisa, has a fashionable elegance not usually associated with the wives of high-ranking Kremlin officials.

Gorbachev (pronounced Gor-BAH-chof) is regarded as a technocrat, a modernizer who can be expected to make changes designed to improve the performance of the Soviet economy and to modify the all-pervasive role of government in the agricultural sector.

During his visit to Britain in December, Gorbachev won praise for his warm, outgoing attitude and appearance of reasonableness on issues that divide East and West. “I like Mr. Gorbachev; we can do business with him,” British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said in a much-quoted appraisal of him.

Many Western observers, however, expressed skepticism that he would depart significantly from established Kremlin policy on foreign or domestic issues. “The style of leadership may change with the succession, but the substance will not,” said Malcolm Toon, a former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union.

Other analysts said that they expect it to take at least several years for Gorbachev to consolidate his power and to exert his personal authority over the entrenched bureaucracy.

He was named to succeed Chernenko as general secretary of the Communist Party--the nation’s most powerful post. However, he was not immediately chosen to fill Chernenko’s position as president, or formal head, of the government.

Gorbachev’s recent speeches indicate that he will carry on the anti-corruption and labor discipline campaign initiated by the late President Yuri V. Andropov, who was Gorbachev’s mentor.

Stalinist Ideologist

Earlier, he apparently had strong support from Mikhail A. Suslov, the late Stalinist ideologist who preceded Gorbachev as Communist Party chief in the province of Stavropol.

Since he was responsible for farm policy during a period that saw five poor harvests, Western students of Soviet affairs believe that Gorbachev must have had powerful protectors high in the party to avoid being made a scapegoat.

On foreign policy issues, Gorbachev has adhered to the party line, although his rhetoric often seems more muted than the editorials in Pravda, the party’s official newspaper.

For example, addressing Bulgarian Communists in Sofia, Gorbachev said: “Those who shape the foreign policy course of the U.S.A. are obviously oriented toward further dangerous heightening of international tension.” He added, though, that if the West treats the Communist countries as equals, “a change for the better in development of international relations will occur.”

In the course of Gorbachev’s well-publicized trip to Britain, the Times of London carried an editorial under the headline: “Enter a Bear, Smiling.” Soviet Analyst, a fortnightly publication, said Gorbachev was cleverly “earning respect while yielding nothing.”

Lowered His Profile

In Britain, Gorbachev had two audiences--the British public and the Kremlin leadership watching to see how he would deal with the West. At first, Gorbachev seemed to bask in the British limelight, but later, perhaps apprehensive about being accused of trying to form a “personality cult,” he lowered his profile.

At times there seemed to be tension between Chernenko and Gorbachev. Despite an outward show of friendship, the Soviet president ignored Gorbachev’s advice on solutions to farm problems. With Chernenko 73 years old and ailing, Gorbachev could afford to wait.

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was born on March 2, 1931, in the village of Privolnoye, in Stavropol province in the northern Caucasus region. As a teen-ager, he drove a grain harvester at a machine and tractor station in his home area.

He became a top official of the Young Communist League in his city, then in the province, before enrolling in Moscow State University Law School, one of the most prestigious institutions in the Soviet Union.

At that time, in the early 1950s, the last years of Josef Stalin, the university cracked down heavily on any sign of dissent. Gorbachev thrived in the atmosphere, becoming Young Communist organizer for his class.

The Nomenklatura

“It was obvious that he realized that party political activity would get him further than his studies would,” Lev Yudovich, who knew Gorbachev at that time, wrote in a British publication.

In his second year, Gorbachev became a party member, and remained on the paid staff of the party after graduation. He had entered the ranks of the nomenklatura, the party elite.

Later, in 1966, he returned to Stavropol province and became the top party official for the city of Stavropol. Four years later he was elevated to the top party post in the province.

It was during this time that he came to know Andropov, who was born in Stavropol and used to vacation there when he was head of the KGB, the state security police.

The two men reportedly cooperated to unseat a political rival of Gorbachev’s in Stavropol by bringing corruption charges against the official, a strong supporter of Leonid I. Brezhnev, who was then the top Soviet leader.

Sought to Improve Farming

For eight years, Gorbachev stayed in his provincial post, trying some radical measures to raise farm production. He lifted many restrictions on operators of private plots, encouraging them to raise livestock and grow vegetables and fruits, despite ideological opposition from some party officials. Gorbachev also strongly supported the zveno, a concept that would have restored some elements of family farming to Soviet collective agriculture.

In 1978, when he was called to Moscow to become national minister for agriculture, his extraordinary rise to power began. Within a year he was appointed a candidate (non-voting) member of the Politburo and, after an unusually short waiting period, he was promoted to full membership in 1980.

Despite a series of poor grain harvests, Gorbachev’s fortunes advanced under Andropov’s 15-month tenure so that he appeared to be in a strong second-ranking position when Chernenko was elevated to the party leadership on Feb. 13, 1984.

Gorbachev is regarded as an enthusiastic backer of Andropov’s anti-corruption campaign for greater discipline in the Soviet economic system.

‘Incompetence, Indifference’

In an address to party ideologists at the end of 1984, he made a strong attack on “formalism,” which he defined as “incompetence, indifference and the replacement of a party political approach with a bureaucratic approach, when importance is attached not to getting things done but to looking good.”

Clearly, he has been deeply concerned about the economy but has refrained from making any commitments on possible changes beyond rationalizing and streamlining the system.

In some ways, Gorbachev’s rapid rise seems difficult to explain since he does not have a reputation as a tough competitor in the dog-eat-dog world of Kremlin politics.

“His career has flourished despite the fact that agriculture, the sector for which Gorbachev was primarily responsible until this year (1984), was the most dismal part of a generally appalling economic performance,” analyst Terry McNeill wrote for the American-sponsored Radio Liberty.

But, as doubts about Chernenko’s health grew in the opening months of this year, Gorbachev clearly was first in the line of succession.